There are plenty of statistics about childhood in the Third World, showing that the struggle for survival is long and hard. But in the rich world, children can suffer from a different kind of poverty –of the spirit. For instance, one Western country alone now sees 14,000 attempted suicides every year by children under 15, and one child in five needs professional psychiatric attention.
There are many good things about childhood in the Third World. Take the close and constant interaction between children and their parents, relatives and neighbours. In the West, the very nature of work puts distance between adults and children.
But in most Third World villages mother and father do not go miles away each day to do abstract work in offices, shuffling paper to make money mysteriously appear in banks. Instead, the child sees mother and father, relations and neighbours working nearby, and often shares in that work.
A child growing up in this way learns his or her role through participation in the community’s work: helping to dig or build, plant or water, attend to animals or look after babies –rather than through playing with water and sand in kindergarten, building with construction toys, keeping pets or playing with dolls.
Third World children are not usually shut up indoors, still less in highrise apartments. Instead of dangerous roads, "keep-off-the-grass" signs and "don’t speak to strangers", there is often a sense of freedom to wander and play. Parents can see their children outside rather than observe them anxiously from ten floors up.
Of course twelve million children under five still die every year through malnutrition and disease. But childhood in the Third World is not all bad.
There are many good things about childhood in the Third World. Take the close and constant interaction between children and their parents, relatives and neighbours. In the West, the very nature of work puts distance between adults and children.
But in most Third World villages mother and father do not go miles away each day to do abstract work in offices, shuffling paper to make money mysteriously appear in banks. Instead, the child sees mother and father, relations and neighbours working nearby, and often shares in that work.A child growing up in this way learns his or her role through participation in the community’s work: helping to dig or build, plant or water, attend to animals or look after babies –rather than through playing with water and sand in kindergarten, building with construction toys, keeping pets or playing with dolls.
Third World children are not usually shut up indoors, still less in highrise apartments. Instead of dangerous roads, "keep-off-the-grass" signs and "don’t speak to strangers", there is often a sense of freedom to wander and play. Parents can see their children outside rather than observe them anxiously from ten floors up.
Of course twelve million children under five still die every year through malnutrition and disease. But childhood in the Third World is not all bad.
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